• January 7, 2005

Rev. Dyson’s Organizing Wisdom

Rev. Dyson’s Organizing Wisdom

Reverend David Dyson has been doing God’s work for decades. Pastor of the landmark Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, Dyson worked with Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers, toiled as an organizer in the labor movement for years, and later co-founded the National Labor Committee in Support of Democracy and Human Rights in Central America, a group of 20 national unions working for peace and trade union rights in war-torn Central America.

Dyson argues that if we are going to build a progressive religious base, we need to organize at the congregational (grassroots) level instead of adopting a top-heavy, celebrity clergy model. He knows, as he told me, that “this is hard old-fashioned work…But if the work continues the way it is going, we will once again cede the field to the right…Sorry to be so ornery about this but as a pastor, and a former organizer, I feel rather passionate” about the changes progressives need to make.

His words are worth heeding.